Copernical Team
Rocket Lab's Lunar Photon completes 6th orbital raise preps for final Earth-escape burn
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Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has confirmed its Photon Lunar spacecraft successfully completed a sixth on-orbit burn of the HyperCurie engine, bringing the CAPSTONE satellite closer to the Moon.
Lunar Photon's apogee - the point at which the spacecraft is farthest from Earth during its orbit - is now 43,297 miles (69,680 km).
This sixth burn was originally scheduled to be two b NASA, SpaceX target new launch date for commercial cargo mission
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NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than Thursday, July 14, for launch of the CRS-25 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
The new target launch date supports ongoing Dragon spacecraft inspections as well as repair and replacement of any components that could have degraded by exposure to mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) vapor found during testing in e Bacteria for blastoff: Using microbes to make supercharged new rocket fuel
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Converting petroleum into fuels involves crude chemistry first invented by humans in the 1800s. Meanwhile, bacteria have been producing carbon-based energy molecules for billions of years. Which do you think is better at the job?
Well aware of the advantages biology has to offer, a group of biofuel experts led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) took inspiration from an Virgin Orbit mission success brings UK launch another step closer
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Virgin Orbit's next satellite launch will take place from the UK, following the success of the "Straight Up" mission, which lifted off from Mojave in California earlier (Saturday 2nd July 2022). Science Minister George Freeman and the UK Space Agency welcomed the news that Virgin Orbit has successfully completed its fourth mission from California, and its first night launch (10.50pm in Californi The Fingertip Galaxy: Reflecting Euclid in art
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Video:
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“After Euclid’s lifetime, it will just be floating in space. What if future beings found Euclid? How would they know anything about the humanity of the people?” – Tom Kitching, lead scientist of Euclid’s VIS instrument.
The team behind ESA’s Euclid mission has come together to create something special – a personal and collective galaxy-shaped fingerprint painting that has been attached to the spacecraft ready to launch into space. The collaborative nature of the artwork reflects the collaborative nature of the Euclid project overall; in both cases, people have come together to build something unique.
The Fingertip Galaxy was
Ibuprofen tablets with flavor added survive better in space
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Ibuprofen tablets modified to survive in space have returned to Earth and shown that those with added flavor survived better with less degradation than those with no added taste.
Researchers from the International Flavor Research Center at the University of Nottingham worked with the University of Adelaide on the research that also showed that an iron oxide coating formed during tablet manufacture could protect Ibuprofen.
"Medicines taken on space missions are exposed to cosmic rays which limit their 'space shelf life' and can even lead to the formation of toxic substances as the drug content declines," said the University of Adelaide's Professor Volker Hessel, Research Director of the Andy Thomas Center for Space Resources and Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials who led the project to send tablets into space.
"We have tested and proven countermeasures to the degrading effects of cosmic rays by sending ibuprofen tablets made in our laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) for six months and checking them on their return.
"Four of the six ibuprofen tablets from outside the ISS, each made with a distinct formulation and protection concept, significantly decomposed to a high number of ibuprofen fragments.
Week in images: 27 June - 1 July 2022
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Week in images: 27 June - 1 July 2022
Discover our week through the lens
Researchers measure atmospheric water vapor using open-air spectroscopy
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Researchers have shown that a new mid-infrared spectrometer can precisely measure the ratios of different forms of water - known as isotopologues - in atmospheric water vapor through open air in a little over 15 minutes. Isotopologue ratios, which can be affected by land-based water evaporation and plant transpiration, are used to develop models of climate change and to understand how water is t NASA aircraft conducting atmospheric studies over DC to Baltimore
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A NASA aircraft will fly over the I-95 corridor from Washington to Baltimore and Hampton, Virginia, in support of an atmospheric campaign in the mid-Atlantic region between July 5 and 16, 2022.
The four-engine turboprop P-3 aircraft, based at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, will fly five days during the 12-day period at altitudes from 1,000 to 10,000 feet.
Each flight dur AFRL space leader commends team, transitions to new role
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"I'll miss the "ah ha" moments," said Col. Eric Felt, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, who will depart AFRL for an assignment at the Pentagon in July.
Felt became the Space Vehicles director in July 2018 and has a dual-hatted role as commander of AFRL's Phillips Research Site, both located at Kirtland AFB. He will be taking on the job of the directo